Plant supports are generally well known in the art. Typical prior art plant supports include a plurality of vertical members and a plurality of horizontal members. The vertical members have opposite top and bottom ends. The vertical member bottom ends are adapted to be inserted into the soil to thereby anchor the plant support to the earth and enable the plant support to support a plant. Some prior art plant supports have vertical members with pointed or sharpened bottom ends to facilitate the insertion of the vertical members into the soil. Typically, the horizontal members are attached to each vertical member and are arranged so that the horizontal members are vertically spaced along the length of the vertical members. The major drawback of the prior art plant supports is that they are designed to be pushed into the soil after planting, and thus to not provide reliable anchoring in the ground.
In preparing to use the prior art plant supports, a user positions the plant support over the plant to be supported and inserts the vertical member bottom ends into the soil. U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,502 discloses a prior art cage for supporting vegetable plants in a garden that can be inserted into the soil without deforming. A horizontal bottom member is provided to be stepped on so that the bottom horizontal member and lower sections of the vertical members engage with the earth and anchor the plant support in the soil. Consequently, the prior art plant support cannot be easily used for potted plants, as stepping onto a plant support in an elevated pot is inconvenient, if not impossible.
Both the horizontal members and the vertical members of prior art plant supports are typically made of wire or rods having a circular cross section. The horizontal members of the prior are plant supports are typically round hoops with a large central opening through which the plant may grow. However, some prior art plant supports utilize straight horizontal members. Prior art plant supports that use straight horizontal members are configured to allow a plant to be tied to the horizontal members by rope, twine, string or the like and are similar in nature to the aforesaid posts.
The more common, hoop type horizontal members typically have hoops that increase in diameter as the horizontal members are arranged from the bottom of the plant support to the top of the plant support. The increasing diameter hoops also have an associated increase in their central openings. These types of plant supports are positioned on top of a plant and allow a plant to grow upwardly through the central openings in the horizontal members. The horizontal members thereby provide support for the branches of the plant at various levels and allow for the plant to increase in diameter as the plant grows upwardly. These prior art plant support horizontal members are made of the same flexible and easily bent material as the vertical members. Therefore, the horizontal members also have the tendency to deform during the insertion of the plant support into the soil.
Because the typical prior art plant supports utilize a flexible and easily bent material, the durability of these plant supports is low and the plant supports are typically used only for a few growing seasons. Because the vertical members are so flexible, the user usually cannot insert a vertical member into the soil to the desired depth in a single action without bending or distorting the other vertical members. Additionally, the flexible nature of the prior art plant supports require the user to bend over or sit on the ground to grasp each vertical member near the bottom end to insert the vertical members into the soil.